Axios: Possible Palestinian State Recognition Considered

The Biden administration is looking into the recognition of a post-Gaza War Palestinian state, Axios reported.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken asked the State Department to conduct a review and present policy options on eventual U.S. and international recognition of Palestinian statehood, two U.S. officials told Axios.

Blinken also asked for a review on what a demilitarized Palestinian state would look like based on models from around the world.

U.S. policy for decades has been to oppose the recognition of Palestine as a state bilaterally and in U.N. institutions. Instead, administrations have said Palestinian statehood should be achieved through direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

It was reported Tuesday that United Kingdom Foreign Secretary David Cameron said the U.K. is considering recognizing a Palestinian state at the United Nations.

Cameron, former British Prime Minister, who is trying to promote a plan to end the war in Gaza, said such a move could bring "irreversible progress to a two-state solution."

"We should be starting to set out what a Palestinian state would look like — what it would comprise, how it would work," Cameron told the Conservative Middle East Council in the House of Commons on Monday, according to Politico.

U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller last week said there is "no way" to solve Israel's long-term security challenges in the region and the short-term challenges of rebuilding Gaza without the establishment of a Palestinian state.

The Biden administration is linking possible normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia to the creation of a pathway for the establishment of a Palestinian state as part of its post-war strategy, Axios reported.

Since the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas terrorists, Saudi officials said any potential normalization agreement with Israel would be conditioned on the creation of an "irrevocable" pathway toward a Palestinian state.

A U.S. official told Axios that some Biden administration employees believe recognition of a Palestinian state should be the first step in negotiations to resolve the Gaza War instead of the last step.

U.S. recognition of a Palestinian state could be done in several ways: Bilaterally, or by not using its veto to block the U.N. Security Council from admitting Palestine as a full U.N. member state, or by encouraging other countries to recognize Palestine.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu proposed a demilitarized Palestinian state several times between 2009 and 2015, but hasn't referred to it in recent years, Axios reported.

Netanyahu recently has rejected calls for Palestinian sovereignty, and said Israel is against any recognition of Palestinian statehood by individual countries or at the U.N.

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